gsefandomcom-20200214-history
Healthcare and Safety
Health Care GSE Requirements GSE requires basic medical care and hospitalization coverage ($250,000), emergency medial evacuation ($50,000), accidental death and dismemberment ($10,000), and repatriation of remains ($20,000). The last three are generally covered by traveler's insurance. Vaccinations CDC Link *Routine vaccinations (Flu, chickenpox, polio, etc.) *Hepatitus A and B *Typhoid *Japanese encephalitis (rural farming areas only) *Rabies (frequent outdoor travelers and vets) Main "traveler's" specialized clinic in Rochester: Passport Health Traveler's Insurance Many plans can be compared at Insuremytrip.com . Coverage meeting all of GSE's requirements for the Philippines (evacuation/etc.) is around $60. Package plans that offer additional benefits, such as trip cancellation coverage for illness, baggage loss/delay, travel delay, and other benefits cost more, up into the $200+ range. Bob's information refers to HGInsurance that offer a Rotary GSE-specific policy. Rates vary based on age. As an example, the 30-35 age group is $36/week ($144 for 4 weeks). Another site is Liason International . General tips from a good MSNBC article : *Determine what coverages you already have through your medical provider, homeowner's policy, and credit cards. *Buy through an established and rated insurance company. *Trip cancellation coverage is often overrated and there are many reasons you can be denied - look for the loopholes and determine if you really need it. In brief: the basic emergency medical coverage that provides for emergency care in-country and medical evacuation is very valuable (airlift evacuation alone can cost in excess of $30,000). Everything else should be scrutinized to see a) if you really need it, and b) if you may already have coverage through other existing policies. Tim's update: I looked up some Travel Insurance with the help of a Rotary friend who is also a Travel Agent. I have some ballpark figures to look at. I have made an assumption that we all have Health Insurance already. The three policies that fit us best are from Travel Guard and are the Gold, Siver and Basic policies. They are based on age and the first one is for someone between 0 and 34 years of age. For basic it is $89, for Siver it is $101 and for Gold it is $117. For age group 35 - 59 Basic is $111, for siver it is $124 and for gold it is $145. For over 60 (me) it is 142, 187, and 160. The Gold policy fits us best and has the highest levels of protection. The other two we are checking to see if we can add a required coverage for life insurance on the ground. They all cover life for the plane ride. They also all have baggage and trip insurance. My friend can get a 10% discount if we sign with him but there are some taxes. So these prices are almost a wash. He highly recommends this company based on prior experiences. These prices are for the Philippines. Safety Most of the regions unsafe for foreign travelers are to the south, particularly the Mindanao area. The New People's Army is around in rural Luzon and is designated as a foreign terrorist unit by the US. They have been known to extort money through kidnap-for-ransom of tourists, but this does not seem particularly common. There is a lot of good safety information on this British government site .